Through its work, Community Centres SA identified the need to offer community-based support for those experiencing loss.
The ‘Beyond Loss’ program worked with Community Centres and programs to uncover ‘why’ people are experiencing loneliness and isolation, discovering that many people have experienced an event or multiple events that cause them to experience grief and loss. This can be for a range of reasons and is not always linked to grief associated with death.
Experiences of grief and loss can occur when life doesn’t turn out as expected such as losing a caring role when a loved one enters residential/aged care, and changes in physical and cognitive ability affecting connection to friends, family and community.
Prior to the project there appeared to be nowhere for people to go to find support, that was not specifically related to grief – such as death or anticipatory grief when a person had a life-limiting illness.
Beyond Loss is working to create safe spaces in the community that support people living with loss to come together with others and a trained worker to find a way to sit with their grief and develop coping mechanisms to move through the world and connect, with further support services if needed.
Community Centres SA partnered with Palliative Care SA, who have already worked with Community leaders, to kickstart the Beyond Loss project idea, and worked with The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) to engage Community Centres around the state; delivering Talk, Listen, Connect training to interested Centres who may be willing to pilot the program in their Community Centre.
There are now four Community Centres ready to pilot the program by delivering six modules to their community in a safe and welcoming environment with modules able to be delivered in sequence or according to individual needs.
Stay up to date: https://communitycentressa.asn.au/ or contact info@communitycentressa.asn.au
The Beyond Loss program is supported by a Positive Ageing Fellowship Grant from Office for Ageing Well.